‘Chesapeake Shores’ Boss on Abby’s Future With [Spoiler] & Possibility of a Spinoff

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Chesapeake Shores Season 6 premiere “The Best Is Yet to Come.”]

After a brief misunderstanding — check your voicemail, Evan (Robert Buckley)! — we not only found out Abby’s (Meghan Ory) choice, but we also saw them on their first date!

The Chesapeake Shores Season 6 premiere ended with Evan showing up at the O’Briens with a yacht for his and Abby’s first date. But the night wouldn’t end with a kiss — impulsiveness has wrecked his past relationships, just ask Scarlett Johansson. But that moment is coming, “when it’s time,” they agree. Elsewhere in the episode, Connor (Andrew Francis) begins his recovery following his heart attack, and Mick (Treat Williams) has us worried as he continues to pop painkillers.

Executive producer Phoef Sutton teases what’s next as we prepare to say goodbye to the O’Brien family.

Talk about deciding Abby’s choice, especially since you’re looking at potentially her next great romance after Trace (Jesse Metcalfe).

Phoef Sutton: We had always intended her to choose Evan. He’s an exciting character and a really interesting match for her and a totally different match for her than Trace. Jay [Greyston Holt] is sweet, always there, and all that, but there wasn’t really a lot of passion there.

What is next for Abby and Evan? 

They’ll continue to banter. [Laughs] They have a friendship before they have a romance and that is a really good way to start. Their relationship will grow slowly and before you know it, they’ll be in it more than they perhaps had intended to be. … Did you like the yacht scene?

I was waiting for something big because I knew he would be doing something big for their first date.

I thought about the yacht, and I thought, we can’t do a yacht, that would be crazy. I thought, well, maybe they can do special effects or something. But they got a yacht! [Laughs] They got an actual yacht. We parked in front of the house and did the whole thing out there. It was great.

And it’s just such a gorgeous scene too.

Yeah, it was wonderful. There are a lot of very exciting and just good scenes between the actors because they’re such good actors and when you give them something to play, they go to town with it. I love writing the show and I love these characters and I hope it’s not over. Let me put it that way. I hope it’s not over.

So are you thinking about spinoffs?

Something. I don’t know. Something would be nice.

Speaking of the yacht, will we see Abby trying to rein in Evan a bit when it comes to those big moments in their relationship and going to the extremes?

Yes, you will, and he will try that, too, as he’s sort of maturing but there are fireworks, so that is good.

How much is her family going to be involved?

He’s definitely a part of the family and I like that about him. He’s kind of as much infatuated by her family, by all the O’Briens, as he is by her. He will be a part of the family, definitely.

The episode last season with him on the couch was so fun.

Yeah, and there are episodes like that, too. There are some surprises and differences that will come up that maybe you don’t expect, but it’s a growing relationship.

There’s also the question of Connor’s health, and it sounds like his recovery is going to be slower than he probably wants. What’s ahead there? We saw how much into work he was last season.

Yes. That’s part of his journey, his desire to get better and go right back to work will be an ongoing frustration for him. And Margaret [Mariesa Crouse] will help him with that and they’ll become more partners and in a relationship, too. It’s very nice.

But there could be a problem with working together and being in a relationship together…

That problem will come up. When they have disagreements about the cases to take or what to do, they’ll have to figure out how to resolve that. And it is a problem.

How worried should we be about Mick and those pills he’s taking and hiding from the family? Yes, he’s injured, but…

You should be. That’s a real problem in this country and you can get hooked on them before you know it, on painkillers and all that. And for a guy as strong and as independent as Mick, it becomes a serious problem for him to admit that he’s having a problem.

When will Mick and Megan [Barbara Niven] have the conversation they need about their past and potentially present and future relationship?

[Laughs] It’s coming up. There’s a great series of scenes with them having a dinner at Megan’s house and kind of going through all that stuff that they haven’t been talking about for years. It’s a very good scene, and Treat is absolutely wonderful this year. His playing of the relationship and his playing of the addiction, I think he should get an Emmy nomination for his work this year. He’s really wonderful. That would be a surprise if Hallmark got an Emmy nomination, but really he’s just wonderful. And so is Barbara. Barbara is terrific in the scenes with him and realizing that their relationship is moving to the next level and trying to talk through all the anger and resentment they have from the past, but trying to get past that. It’s quite wonderful.

Bree (Emilie Ullerup) and Luke (Stephen Huszar) are in the early days of their relationship, and she’s still not sure about how much she wants to share with the world just yet. What does that mean for them moving forward?

They’ll have probably the rockiest relationship of any of the people, because they’re so different and he is so such a different person from the person that she has dated before. They both have trust issues and the past will come back to haunt him somewhat. But I believe they’ll get through it.

And I don’t know if it was known out there in this country, but Emilia and Brendan [Penny, who plays Kevin] got nominated for Leo Awards last year for their work on the show — that’s the Canadian Emmys — and it was well deserved and she’s even better this year. It’s really cool to have all these great actors and all these great characters that you can put through stuff and what is happening with them is so believable.

How are Kevin and Sarah (Jessica Sipos) going to be continuing to deal with their loss this season? And do kids come up again in a significant way?

They obviously are mourning their loss and they’re working through it. And they will have something new to think about.

Mandrake (Wesley Salter) was so good in the premiere.

I love Mandrake, and he was kind of a surprise character because he started out as just a driver and then he grew because Wesley was so good and Robert was so good with Wesley. There’s gonna be quite a bit of revelations about Mandrake’s backstory and his relationship with Evan. That will be a part of Evan’s journey this year, and a part of Abby’s too.

When it comes to his father and the FBI, is David (Carlo Marks) torn in a significant way at all? He is angry, but this is his dad…

Exactly, he’s very torn. He’s angry at his dad. He never had a great relationship with his dad, but at the same time, it is his dad. He will go through a lot of angst about that. Carlo really shines this year. He does some great stuff, some scenes with his dad that are just wonderful and it takes some surprising turns.

Talk about the Jess (Laci J Mailey) we’re going to see this season as a result. As she says to her sisters, it’s new for her to be the one comforting him.

Yeah, that’s a total change in their relationship, because he’s always been the solid rock person while she’s been through all of her flighty and real problems with her anxiety and all that and now she has to be the strong one for him. She’ll really grow this season and find that she’s up for it.

Knowing this season is building to this series finale, what can fans expect? There could be a lot of callbacks, returns of characters, things like that…

It’s more that a lot of stuff that maybe would’ve taken two or three seasons to do, we kind of had to move forward. So a lot happens this year. It is a very exciting year.

Will we see Felix again, or has that cat served his purpose?

[Laughs] Unfortunately, we won’t see Felix again. He was just a visitor. But I liked him.

We had the scares last season with Mick and the crash, then Connor and the heart attack. Any more medical emergencies in the O’Briens’ futures?

[Laughs] Well, medical emergencies … there might be one or two reasons to be in the hospital.

There could be happy reasons to be in a hospital, too.

That’s very true.

Is there anything else you can tease about the final season?

Megan and Mick’s story is kind of concurrent with Abby and Evan’s, as far as the way the show goes, and they are able to get past their resentments and start a new relationship.

Chesapeake Shores, Sundays, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel